2027 bower(schools)™ National Sharing Conference

Schools are navigating a rapidly changing landscape. Violence, school refusal, harmful sexualised behaviours, suicidality, mental health challenges and increasingly complex inclusion needs place significant demands on educators and school leaders.

From Complexity to Clarity: Shaping Practice Together invites school leaders to draw on shared experience and collective thinking to strengthen their responses to these challenges.

Built from decades of clinical, educational and systemic practice, bower(schools)™ protocols support clear decision making, transparent communication and the alignment of responsibility with authority. They provide practical processes for coordinated responses across schools, families, health and human service systems.

The bower(schools)™ National Sharing Conference brings together leaders from partner schools to share their experiences of translating these protocols into practice. Through honest reflection, practical examples and collegial discussion, participants will explore what is working, what remains challenging and how learning from one another can shape more effective practice.

Whether you are beginning your bower(schools)™ journey or deepening your application, this free conference offers an opportunity to contextualise concepts and principles within your school, discover new possibilities and contribute to shared learning.

Together, we will explore how clearer processes and collaborative thinking can strengthen leadership, support inclusion and improve outcomes for students, families and school communities.

Where: Hybrid

Face to face: Bower Place – 145 South Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia

Online: Via Teams (Link provided for online access) 

When: Friday, 21 May 2027 

Time: 9:00am – 5:00pm 

Registration, coffee and networking from 9am

Presentations: 10am-4pm

Post Conference Networking Drinks: 4-5pm

Cost: FREE 

About the presenters:

Sareya Dudley - PhD Research Candidate

Jayne Thelning - Tatachilla Lutheran College, R-7 Learning Enhancement Coordinator

More Partner School Presenters to be announced

Malcolm Robinson

Malcolm is a Social Worker, Family Therapist and Mediator with fifty-three years clinical, therapeutic, dispute resolution, negotiation, clinical teaching, and management knowledge and skill working with people with high and complex needs; with fractured and fragmented families; with individuals and whole families corralled by multiple institutional service delivery systems. In child, adolescent and adult mental health, child protection, homelessness, education, addictions, industrial injury, acquired brain injury, disability, criminal justice, youth justice, and family law. He teaches Family Therapy and Systemic Practice and has held pivotal positions in family therapy, mental health, and homelessness. He was a key witness in the Royal Commission into the Institutional Abuse of Children. Malcolm has presented more than four hundred (400) conference papers, presentations, and workshops in Australia, New Zealand, UK, and USA.

Lisa Wolff

Lisa is the Director of bower(schools). She is a qualified Teacher and Counsellor with 25 years of experience in Independent and State schools in Australia and the UK; as a Classroom Teacher, Special Education Teacher, Aboriginal Education Teacher, Wellbeing Coordinator, Pastoral Care Coordinator, and Student Counsellor. Lisa is seasoned in working with children and adults with high and complex needs, complex trauma, grief, loss, neurodivergence, learning difficulties and disabilities, addictions, poverty, and interpersonal difficulties. Lisa is passionate about social justice, fairness, equality, inclusion and creating spaces where collaboration is key in successful outcomes. As director of bower(schools), Lisa works to equip school staff to transform their practices and reframe student behaviour, leading to a flourishing school culture.